Rivals, the Rewrite
by IronHeartWriter
Summary: An old rival of Tony Stark's needs his help to survive, and he gives it to her reluctantly, unaware that he may soon need her help in return. Movieverse/AU Tony/OC


**AN: About four years ago, I wrote the original 'Rivals' right after I saw Iron Man. Now, four years later and just after watching The Avengers, I have decided to rewrite this fanfic. My writing style has changed a lot since the original, and though I initially only wanted to rewrite 'Haunted,' I decided it was only right to rewrite this one first. I hope it is enjoyed as much as the original was.**

**Chapter 1**

It was 6:45 am according to the digital clock next to his bed. Tony Stark had been surprisingly deep in sleep when his cell phone began blaring. He cursed under his breath and leaned over to pick up the small, nearly transparent phone, damning to hell the person who dared to wake him up at 6:45 in the morning on a Sunday.

"This better be important," Tony growled as he picked up the phone, not even certain that he was fully awake himself.

"Mister Stark, it's Nick Fury."

Tony felt an immense rush of anger charge through his body. There were few people who boiled his blood the way that Nick Fury did, "Fury, it's 6:45 am, on a _Sunday_. I didn't go to sleep until forty-five minutes ago! You better have a damn good reason for waking me up now."

"I need your help, Mr. Stark," Fury said, his usual no-nonsense voice in place, and at the moment that voice was grinding on Tony's very short nerves. "Actually, Nicole Lion needs your help."

"You're kidding me, right?" Tony asked as he sat up in bed, now more alert than he had been when his phone first rang. "_Nicole Lion_? What the hell could she need from me?"

"Not only no, Fury, but _hell_ no," Tony snarled at the leader of SHIELD as he paced the meeting room not even half an hour later. The sun was barely up, and already his mood was going from bad to worse. His normally playful eyes were hard and cold as he glared at the man that was Nick Fury. "What you're asking me to do is not only _insane_, but stupidly risky."

"The government needs Nicole Lion to stay in charge of Lion Laboratories, Mr. Stark," Fury said. "She's at the head of the team trying to recreate the Super Soldier serum, and they need her alive to do it."

"I thought the Super Soldier Project was abandoned after what happened to Banner," Tony said icily. His blood boiled at the thought of the Super Soldier Project and the consequences of the last time they had tried and failed to bring it back.

"Nicole Lion is different than the others," Fury said with a shake of her head. "She's not trying to make pure Super Soldiers, just give them temporary boosts. She's onto something, Stark, and the government isn't ready to let her go yet." He stood in front of Tony and looked him dead in the eye, "We're losing men out there, Tony, and her being alive to finish what she started can help bring them home faster..."

Tony looked away from Fury, turning to start his pace once more, "What was it that got her?" He asked in a low voice, already having a feeling that he knew the answer. He was remembering, rather forcefully, the attack on his own life that caused him to depend on the reactor to save his heart from the clusters of shrapnel that were embedded inside him.

"A landmine that witnesses say was one from Stark Industries," Fury responded grimly. "She was in a hot zone when they were attacked, and someone tripped the mine. It went into the air and sprayed shrapnel everywhere. She didn't stand a chance. She still doesn't if you keep refusing, Stark."

Tony sighed softly, pinching the bridge of his nose, "Goddamn it, Fury," He growled. "I know I'm going to regret this. I'll build you a reactor for her use only, but I demand to oversee everything she goes through having it put into her. I'm not letting one of these fall into the wrong hands," He said, tapping his chest indicatively. "And if this all goes to hell, I'll gladly be the one to tear it out of her."

Hours later, Tony exited an operating room, pulling off a set of scrubs that had been given to him. It was one thing to have gone through the surgery that had forever changed his life, but to see a team of doctors now able to do it with such ease... That set him on edge a little bit. He couldn't believe what he had witnessed though. Whenever he thought of the name Nicole Lion, Tony thought of a pain in the neck girl who always tried, and sometimes succeeded, in one-upping him. Where his father had started Stark Industries, Nicole's father had started Lion Laboratories. Over the years, both had worked with the United States government for different reasons, but Howard Stark and Daniel Lion had a bitter rivalry that had passed down to their children. Both of whom had proven that they were brilliant at young ages, but their parent's rivalry carried over to them, and growing up, the two had hated each other. But even he had to admit, his heart had sunk slightly when he saw what had happened to Nicole thanks to one of his mines that was still floating in the wrong hands. Her skin had been burned and been pierced by the shrapnel, but she was alive, just like Fury had wanted.

He had designed another reactor, just like his, but one that gave off less energy. After all, what would Nicole need with a reactor that gave off as much power as his?

"Was it successful?" The soft voice snapped Tony out of her thoughts. He looked up to see his personal assistant, Pepper, standing a few feet away. He wondered vaguely how she knew he had been there, but then again, over the years, he'd learned to stop questioning her.

"As successful as it's going to be," Tony responded simply as Nick Fury appeared as well. "I can't really say how her body's going to react to the reactor initially since I've never had one implanted in another human, but how much more different can she be?"

"Well we'll just have to wake her up and see," Fury said. He looked at Tony with his one good eye, "Stark, I know you didn't want to do this to save her, but thank you for agreeing to do so."

"I told you, Fury," Tony said, his tone somewhat icy, "If anything goes wrong, I'll gladly rip it out of her heart and let the shrapnel do what it's meant to."

"Nothing's going to go wrong," Fury said with a shake of his head. "I can assure you of that. Now, if you want to stay around, they're about to wake her up."

"May as well see what my brilliant creation can do," Tony said with a shrug. He knew that if Nicole's body was going to be affected by the reactor, they weren't going to realize it immediately. Hell, it had taken some time for him to realize his body was initially being slowly poisoned, but he'd long since fixed that problem. He followed Fury back into the room where Nicole lay motionless, her body had been cleaned up a bit and she now lay with a bandage over her chest, her arms restrained.

One of the nurses started to gently wake Nicole up, talking to her in a soft voice. The young woman's eyes fluttered and almost instantly her hands moved to go to her chest, but she found them restrained and a cry mixed with frustration and fear escaped her lips as she struggled against the bonds. Fury stepped forward, "Miss Lion, you're alright," He said in a calm voice. "Don't worry, we're not here to harm you."

"Who are you?" Nicole demanded. Her eyes went directly to her chest where the large bandage was, "Last I remember I was in Afghanistan and they told me I was dying because of a..." She had been looking around and at last her eyes landed on Tony, "Stark Industries land mine... You... you son of a bitch! This is your fault!"

"You're welcome for saving your life," Tony responded thickly. He hadn't expected anything less from Nicole. Not that she didn't have a point about the mine being his fault. His company _had_ manufactured it, but he wasn't responsible for her getting hurt by it. "I saved your life, though trust me, I wasn't exactly running to do it."

"Of course not," Nicole shot back, trying and failing to sit up while the restraints pulled on her arms. "Why take responsibility? You might be brilliant, but responsibility and accountability, those can both go to hell, right? Same as always..."

"And I suppose you're so perfect?" Tony asked, tilting his head ever so slightly. "Sitting up there in your big laboratory building and letting soldiers test your drugs."

"No, see, unlike you, _my_ company's products don't carry a death toll that goes into the millions," Nicole snarled. She might be injured, but she couldn't stand the mere sight of Tony, and the fact that he was currently in the same room with her, when the mine that had landed her in the bed in the first place had been his infuriated her to no end.

"You know, you've got one hell of a way of thanking someone for saving your life," Tony commented, his voice slightly amused. "I'm sorry, Nicole, next time I'll be sure to tell Fury no when he comes to me with the chance to save someone who's a little too valuable to lose."

With that, Tony stormed from the room, his heart racing and his blood boiling. Nicole Lion had rubbed him the wrong way since they were kids, and apparently the fact that he had just helped save her life didn't mean much to her. Tony knew Pepper was behind him without even needing to turn around. For one, her heels made it impossible for him to not know, but after working with someone for as long as he had with Pepper, he could always tell when she was near.

"You know she just needs time to adjust," Pepper said in a low voice. "She was just angry about what happened..."

"She's Nicole Lion," Tony said in a low voice. "She's always angry at me. She was raised to be, just like I was raised to hate her. If my father could see me today; helping to keep her alive... He'd get one hell of a kick out of it."

"The point is, she _is_ alive now because of you," Pepper said. "She'll come to accept it, one way or another."

"Not likely," Tony said with a shake of his head. "You don't know Nicole like I do, Pepper. She can be the nicest person in the world to everyone around her, but when it comes to me, it's like she's programmed to hate me."

"Maybe her having the reactor in her chest will change all of that," Pepper said, a faint note of hope in her voice.

Tony laughed, "Yeah, maybe when hell freezes over."


End file.
